One of the few pizza places in town to offer both vegan and gluten-free options -- it's a California-based chain, after all -- ZPizza always manages to impress with its regular, run-of-the-mill pizzas, too. The Bissonnet location is more geared toward delivery and takeout, but has a cheerful if basic dining room. You can order its most popular options by the slice or build your own with a huge selection of sauces, cheeses and toppings, including the surprisingly creamy vegan cheese, Daiya, which is so good you won't miss the dairy-based stuff. You can also BYOB here -- and there's even a Spec's right across the street.

Vegan but still like an upscale dining experience or a thoughtful wine list? Roots Bistro in Montrose was almost custom-built for you. Although vegan chef German Mosquera recently left, new exec Chandler Rothbard is set to keep the menu interesting and modern -- while very vegetable-friendly at the same time. Try the charred okra with maple syrup to start or the "squashta" made with seasonal squash, topped with squash blossoms and vegetables in a tangy tahini dressing. For dessert, there's a wickedly good raw chocolate chai ganache with persimmon puree.

Pepper Tree is best known for its $9.99 buffet, which features vegetarian Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisine as well as a few Western dishes. Anything normally made with meat is reimagined here with textured vegetable protein and more: Tofu versions of Peking duck, General Tso's chicken and kung pao chicken all come out tasting delicious. The modern, calming decor, the spotless interior and the friendly, knowledgeable staff make this the place for the novice or the experienced vegan. The wonderful owners, Happy and Mike Tsai, even serve de-chlorinated, triple-distilled alkaline clustered water in an ultimate health-conscious display.

Yes, Loving Hut is run by a cult. But that cult makes damn good vegan food, so I'm willing to overlook it. (Anyway, it's not like these are Scientologists we're talking about.) The menu at this far-flung West Houston restaurant is primarily Asian-focused, with Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese-influenced dishes, but there are also more Americanized dishes like the Loving Hut Burger (with a soy patty and Vegenaise) and the Savory Spaghetti made with tofu. Half restaurant, half cafe serving fresh-squeezed juices, Loving Hut offers something for everyone -- as long as they don't eat meat. You can even grab some its more popular items, pre-packed, from the freezer to take home.

hi, as a vegan when i see top vegan resturants i come in with a mindset that i would be able to eat everything off the menu on any establishment listed. i was disapointed that most of them weren't vegan and only a few were vegetarian. for future refrence, please list only establishments that are vegetarian at least, and vegan at most. to me, this is like saying sandy's bar makes smoothies and cranberry juice, but as someone who would be clean and sober you would only want to know about the places that sell drinks with no alcohol in them. great start and let's get more clean for the future <3

Thanks, HP, for representing vegan restaurants. I do take issue with the bit about Loving Hut being run by a cult. I don't know much about their religion, except that they promote compassion for all beings and sustainability. Sounds a lot better than many other religions, but I guess if a cult gets large enough it gets to be called a religion.

I can't believe you didn't put the Free Range Lettuce Cafe on this list. How can you call this a list? Despite the fact that FRLC doesn't exist, it should still be on the list. It would be kick ass!. The lettuce would taste all luke warm and stuff. Yeah, luke warm. Refrigeration ain't green. Mmmm. Luke warm lettuce feels so good in ma belly.

I would add the Hobbit Cafe on Richmond (or the driveway and sign are anyways). They have great veg options that can easily be veganized. I recommend the Numenor with Tofu, it's amazing. Another great Vietnamese option is Jenni's Noodle House. Jenni's clearly labels their vegan or veganizable dishes and even has three kinds of vegan cookies. For Cheap eats, my money always goes to the Bird. Freebirds has the best burritos in town and the food is way healthier (less sodium or fat) than Chipotle or the awfully puntastic Bullrito. Honestly, it's pretty easy to be a vegan most places other than the already mentioned Meat Buffets and places like Cracker Barrel who think bacon should be a primary ingredient in all their dishes.

Flakey's Pizza (food truck in the parking lot of Super Happy Fun Land) deserves a shout out here. While they have a nice selection of meat and vegetarian pizzas, they also do a pretty awesome vegan pizza complete with Daiya. Plus, they deliver in the East End.

Fark it, the trend has gone so off kilter, it is now a joke. I'm going to get ahead of the curb and start an all raw vegan bar that will trump every other vegan's restaurant for authenticity. Sure, it'll just be a bunch of fruits and vegetables along with some store bought gluten free "wraps," but when mockery doesn't stop them, I might as well make a profit on their gullibility.

I dunno if I would really call this a "best of" list as much as just a list. Had to stretch to include a food truck and include places that won't label their food vegan (which usually makes vegans suspicious, and rightly so).

It's hard eating out and being vegan or vegetarian. A lot of times a restaurateurs idea of "no meat" varies from place to place. I've been told soups are vegetarian only to find it has beef broth, but no chunks of meat. Or for some odd reason fish isn't considered a meat. Not saying any of the places on this list would do anything like this, just highlighting how difficult it can be to eat vegan or vegetarian when going to restaurants.

Cafe TH is really good, but sweet Jesus they have some of the worst hours of operation in Houston.

Hi there, I started vegan eating about two months ago. I really am loving it. I started out reading many articles online. I have tried many new recipes and always make it to the "t" so to speak for the first time and then during dinner I sit with the printed recipe and add or delete other options. Some of the dishes are super spicy. Check out the website for the station 2 firefighters from Austin. I have used many of their recipes too. If you'd like to chat more, you can email me at clarkjo74@yahoo.com

@Kylejack I love Conscious Cafe, but my favorite items there are very non-vegan: the bean pie and the salmon burger. That said, it definitely bears mentioning because it does have some good vegan options. Thanks!

I would argue that dining out vegetarian is only a minor setback in Houston. I have encountered maybe a handful of places that had absolutely nothing vegetarian (one of the Tela's used lard for the beans, and that place on 59 with the hellish sandbox puts delicious bacon in pretty much everything), so unless you're going to something like Churasco's or one of those Meat Sword places and complaining I'm struggling to see the problem. Dining out vegan is only slightly more difficult, but really it depends on what you're eating and how complicated you want to make your order. Most asian fare make it ridiculously easy to eat vegan, and there's a fare amount of other spots that have some accidentally vegan or straight up no meat/no dairy dishes. For our love of red meat and rodeos, Houston is pretty up on the vegan/vegetarian options. I think we could easily go toe-to-toe with Austin any day.

I've had some great food from trucks. My only problem with food trucks is their dependability. I frequently eat from food trucks but I'm also frequently standing in a parking lot confused thumbing through twitter trying to figure out what happened to the truck. In my experience they are not the most punctual group. Perhaps that smacks of ignorance. Perhaps it's wrong to lump them all into a category as such. Sometimes perception is reality. I've stopped depending on food trucks to be where they say they'll be when they say they'll be there. If I'm driving around and I see a truck I like and I'm hungry I'll stop. If I see that XYZ truck is going to be near me, I'll look out for it. But I'm not counting on it.

Glad to hear Green Seed is now a brick and mortar. Your food is great. Very happy for you.

@budrich As Smedley pointed out, that food truck is now a full-blown restaurant. But what would be wrong with including a food truck on the list? Green Seed Vegan - when it was just a food truck - was still serving some of the absolute best vegan food I'd ever tasted.